Two years after the destruction, the Japanese National Research Institute for Cultural Properties, working through Unesco and the Afghan authorities, began putting money into clearing up the site and consolidating the surfaces of the niches. The aim at this point was to recreate the Buddhas, an immensely ambitious project since the larger of the two was taller than the Tower of Pisa.

But there were doubts from the first whether this was the right approach. There have been other proposals, from laser projections of Buddhas onto the cliff face—unrealistic in a part of the world that barely has electricity—to a plan from the University of Aachen to attach the remaining fragments to the niche wall on a metal frame—unsatisfactory because hardly any of the stone carving remains intact, the Buddhas having been hewn all in one piece out of the living rock, which was therefore reduced to rubble by the explosions.

What is more, Andrea Bruno, who knows the country intimately, having led the conservation of the fort at Herat and the minaret of Jam over many years, believes that such solutions do not take the sensibilities of the Afghans into account. Rebuilding the Buddhas would inevitably be politically loaded, he says, besides causing religious offence. “Here the Muslims strictly oppose images; to recreate the Buddhas would be an insult even to non-Taliban Afghans. We must show good manners,” he says. In fact, after ten years, the Unesco meeting on Bamiyan held in Tokyo in December 2011 announced finally that the Great Buddha would not be recreated, and the smaller Buddha was unlikely to be.

Huseng wrote:The Bamiyan Buddha statues that the Taliban blew up won't be rebuilt.

I think that it is a good idea not to rebuild them. They are just statues, nothing empowered in them. It is unfortunate that they were blown-up, but the people there no longer follow Buddhism, so it wouldn't serve any purpose for those who live there.

Huseng wrote:The Bamiyan Buddha statues that the Taliban blew up won't be rebuilt.

I think that it is a good idea not to rebuild them. They are just statues, nothing empowered in them. It is unfortunate that they were blown-up, but the people there no longer follow Buddhism, so it wouldn't serve any purpose for those who live there.

Apparently the locals would get offended, too, at rebuilding "the idols".

It is always a shock reaching Bamiyan, coming face to face with the two huge cavities in the cliff face. The upright tombs stare out over the valley, a splash of vegetation surrounded by wild mountains. The town straddles the Silk Road, close to the point where it used to enter Persia, dwarfed by two massive mountain ranges, the Koh-i-Baba and Hindu Kush. The void left by the two destroyed Buddha figures is appalling, it rouses an emotion almost more powerful than their once tranquil presence did for centuries.

To understand what happened you must go back to the beginning of 2001. The Taliban-led regime was on very poor terms with the international community and increasingly tempted by radical gestures. The decision to destroy the two monumental Buddha figures at Bamiyan was just part of the drive to destroy all the country’s pre-Islamic “icons”, an act of defiance to the outside world.

Demolition work at Bamiyan started at the beginning of March 2001 and lasted several weeks, the two figures – 58 and 38 metres tall – proved remarkably solid. Anti-aircraft guns had little effect, so the engineers placed anti-tank mines between their feet, then bored holes into their heads and packed them with dynamite. The world watched this symbolic violence in impotent horror.

Now almost 14 years on, reconstruction work has yet to start as archaeologists and UNESCO policy-makers argue.

The article continues on talking about how some local Shi'ites had forgotten they were Buddhas and made up a folklore that the statues were lovers and might rebuild one for tourism and leave the other as a remembrance of the Taliban's ways. Just thought some here would find the article interesting and be worth posting.

Huseng wrote:The Bamiyan Buddha statues that the Taliban blew up won't be rebuilt.

I think that it is a good idea not to rebuild them. They are just statues, nothing empowered in them. It is unfortunate that they were blown-up, but the people there no longer follow Buddhism, so it wouldn't serve any purpose for those who live there.

David N. Snyder wrote:I think that it is a good idea not to rebuild them. They are just statues, nothing empowered in them. It is unfortunate that they were blown-up, but the people there no longer follow Buddhism, so it wouldn't serve any purpose for those who live there.

You don't believe Statues can be Empowered?Care to explain?

Maybe such a statue is the more "empowered" the more there are people with faith looking at them. It is a dependent relation between the statue and the devotee. If there was a statue alone in the desert it would only reveal its empowerment as soon as anybody visits it...

But: I saw a TV report about the people living near to these destroyed statues. They are buddhists but they have to hide it. They miss the statues grievously.

David N. Snyder wrote:I think that it is a good idea not to rebuild them. They are just statues, nothing empowered in them. It is unfortunate that they were blown-up, but the people there no longer follow Buddhism, so it wouldn't serve any purpose for those who live there.

You don't believe Statues can be Empowered?Care to explain?

Maybe such a statue is the more "empowered" the more there are people with faith looking at them. It is a dependent relation between the statue and the devotee. If there was a statue alone in the desert it would only reveal its empowerment as soon as anybody visits it...

But: I saw a TV report about the people living near to these destroyed statues. They are buddhists but they have to hide it. They miss the statues grievously.

In July 1999, Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar issued a decree to preserve the Bamiyan Buddhas. "Because Afghanistan’s Buddhist population no longer exists, which removed the possibility of the statues being worshiped, he added: 'The government considers the Bamiyan statues as an example of a potential major source of income for Afghanistan from international visitors. The Taliban states that Bamyan shall not be destroyed but protected.'" Later the Taliban changed its tune and took a stricter line, destroying much non-Islamic and Islamic (which showed a different version of Islam and Islamic history than the Taliban's) art and historical remains. The specific destruction of the Bamiyan buddhas was aimed not only at the destruction of "idols," but at the people of the area (who had historically benefited from the tourist income as well as enjoyed some local pride).The Sunni Pashtun Taliban wanted to demonstrate that they had their foot on the throat of the Shi'a Hazara who live in area.

So many, if not most, people in Afghanistan as well as Muslims, Buddhists, secularists, etc. abroad would support their recreation, if possible (can you rebuild them with all of their historical associations or would you end up with a pale reminder?), although it is an open question, as noted, as to whether or not this should be a priority given the current situation.

Last edited by Caodemarte on Mon Jun 15, 2015 10:08 pm, edited 1 time in total.